The Passover and Music connection

The Passover and Music connection

By Shirley Nigri Farber

The memories that I have from Passover are always associated with beautiful songs from the Haggadah. Songs like "Avadim Hayinu," "Dayenu," and "Ma Nishtana" are ingrained in my memory from Jewish school to family seders. When I had my radio program *Shalom Israel" in Rio de Janeiro in the late '90s, I began to study the importance of music in Judaism.

Music is present at important moments throughout our history and helps us in some way to be resilient and survive adversities. Sometimes it is a form to thank G-d for miracles, to praise, to ask for blessings, or just to express joy or make us feel better.

One song, "Shirat Hayam," is cited in the Torah exactly during what might be the most significant part of our history: the crossing of the Red Sea, a text we read during the days of Passover and also as part of the Haggadah. The saying is: "Az yashir Moshe u'vnei Yisrael" – then Moses and the children of Israel will sing. The scene was the Israelites crossing the Red Sea on dry land, leaving behind the Egyptians. The soldiers of Pharaoh drowned, and the Jewish people, en route to the promised land, left the days of slavery behind.

The Midrash says that people sang at that moment to express the joy that they were witnessing. They didn't sing when they heard the news that we would be free from slavery. It was an even bigger joy, because this is something that all the people had witnessed, felt in their hearts, and therefore needed a song to express the moment.

Every word is measured in the Bible. "Az Yashir" ("then we will sing") refers to the future, not the past. We remember the exit of Egypt as a time of gratefulness for having been saved and for bringing our people to the Holy Land, and also, as an expression of the final redemption that will come with the arrival of the Messiah, an expression of hope in the future.

In all generations, it is necessary to remember this miracle. The Passover Seder is made in a way that children (our future) will participate in, by singing songs and asking questions. 

In the Haggadah, we read that each Jew must feel as if they themselves had left Egypt (Mitzrayim). Why is this episode so important for us today? We live so far from Egypt's slavery, but at the same time, there are Jewish people having to hide their religion in fear of antisemitism. Unless you are held captive by Hamas in Gaza, most people are free to move.

Since the Exodus of Egypt to the present day, there is always someone “making the crossing of the Red Sea,” trying to leave a place where they feel oppressed and escape to be themselves. Think of all the Jews who left everything and ran away from Egypt in the 1950s, of those Jews who escaped Iran when the new regime took power, of the Russian Jews who tried to flee and were sent to Siberia as punishment. Think of all the Jews who were seen as enemies while living in Arab countries.

And now, keep in mind the Israelis who have been held hostage in Gaza for more than 170 days. Whatever oppresses you (work, health, family, money), it is important to keep in mind the hope for a better future.

When I had my radio program, my idea was to bring in Jewish music to help people relax, and slowly I understood that music can touch people in a very deep way. Each song causes a different emotion in people. I would receive letters and phone calls from listeners in various cities, sometimes far away from the Jewish community, saying that they had been woken up spiritually by a song. An Israeli once told me that the music reminded him of when he had served his country. A Jewish listener once said that a song in Yiddish reminded her of her mother lighting Shabbat candles and pushing her into lighting them herself.

The Israeli rock that I played took a young person back to the time when he was volunteering in a kibbutz decades earlier. An elderly woman told me that she cried every time she heard "My Yiddishe Mama" by Dudu Fisher, because it reminded her of the time she lived in a ghetto in Europe. One woman said that she cried when listening to the program, because her mother used to sing while preparing kneidlach (matzah ball) for Passover.

Important and happy events in Jewish life are always followed by music, as occurs during marriages and mitzvahs. Music has the power to get people involved and transmit emotion. How many times have we liked a song that we don't even understand the meaning of? Music has the power to connect people from all over the world in different languages because it reaches the soul.

If on one hand music is synonymous with joy, its absence is required at moments of sadness. During the Sefirat HaOmer, the counting of the Omer, and on sad dates of the Jewish calendar, our Sages forbade us from hearing songs accompanied by musical instrumentals. The counting of the Omer begins on the second day of Passover and ends 49 days later on Shavuot.

We have a one day break in between, Lag B'Omer, the 33rd day. Customs are different in different communities, some observed only until Lag B'Omer.

However you enjoy, appreciate, or remember songs and prayers, we wish you many happy holidays ahead!

Journalist Shirley Nigri Farber is editor and publisher of Shalom  Magazine. From 1997 to 2000 she hosted and produced the radio  program Shalom Israel in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

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